Turn Back the Clock
by memoire
Summary: The school year is coming to a close. Everybody is saying their goodbyes and wishing their classmates a good summer and for those who are graduating, tearful hugs and final farewells. For Octavian, he goes to the grave of an old adversary and holds a spell book in his hands. Hogwarts AU.


**It takes place in no particular time (but takes place before the Golden Trio), and each year will not be encompassing the entire year but only one specific part.**

 **That is all I have to say. Enjoy reading.**

 **Disclaimer: I neither own the PJO series by Rick Riordan or the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I'm much too poor to even own one of them.**

* * *

The first years were humming with excitement as they approach the Great Hall. They were all dressed primly in their black coats and uniform. The only thing missing was the house emblem and matching tie, which they will get right after they are sorted. Some were sweating profusely, some were eager; some just want to get the ceremony over and done with.

Among these children was Rachel Dare, the daughter of a wealthy Ministry of Magic employee, who was in the back of the group. Her bright frizzy red hair was brought back into a ponytail and freckles dotted her pale face. Her hands were covered with pencil smudges and paint lines from the ride to Hogwarts. Her robes had holes in them.

(They weren't there in the first place; her parents would never let her leave the house like that. She made them with the point of her pencil when she bored. The train ride only provided so much entertainment when a person sat alone).

The teacher, she forgot her name, was rambling about the rules and regulations of Hogwarts. Rachel was too nervous to pay attention and kept her eyes locked on the wooden door. What if she was a squib or embarrassed herself in front of the crowd? What if the headmaster hated her? What if the house that she was sorted in didn't like her?

Rachel tugged on her sleeves nervously. Her future depended on how well she was going to do in Hogwarts and based on her predictions, not very well. She didn't even want to go. She wanted to live in the muggle world with her muggle friends and her muggle knowledge. But her parents, most notably her dad, were pureblood supremacists and wanted her to attend the school.

The group suddenly lurched forward and the doors opened. Rachel stayed rooted to her spot, unable to move an inch.

"Hey, move! You're blocking everyone's way!" Rachel looked back and saw a blonde boy angrily scowling at her. He was a scrawny kid with cold blue eyes. He was only twelve, right? All of them were. How could a person as young as him already look intimidating?

"Sorry, I'm just a bit nervous. It's my first time at Hogwarts you know. The interior is quite nice don't you think. If I have time, I think I can do a rendition of the school…" said Rachel. She gave him a nervous smile and coughed awkwardly. "Anyway, what's your name?"

The boy snorted. "You'll see soon enough." He walked past her in a flurry.

"How rude. He could've just walked around me…" Rachel sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I guess I have to get a move on. Don't want to be late to my own sorting ceremony…"

* * *

The ceremony was all a blur to Rachel. The same teacher that lectured them in the hallway was the same teacher that was doing the sorting. Her name was Professor McGonagall, and she was more frightening than Rachel remembered with her austere grey hair and sharp eyes.

Girls and boys lined up, sat on the stool, and welcomed with open arms to their house. Sometimes it would take a few seconds; sometimes it would take a few minutes. She found out the name of the boy. It was Octavian, Octavian Andersen. He got sorted into Slytheirn, and the hat wasn't even near his head! Figures, he looked like the ambitious sort.

Andersen… Rachel recognized his last name. She recalled her father talking, or rather complaining, about an "Apollo Andersen" and all the scandals that he was involved in with the Ministry and how the hell did he keep his job. Was Octavian the son of Apollo? She was intimidated by Octavian to ask so Rachel guessed that she would have to do some research.

Time seemed to move slowly during the ceremony as Rachel anxiously waited to be sorted. It seemed to take forever for the A's to be sorted, then the B's, then the C's, and finally the D's.

"Dare, Rachel."

Rachel immediately jerked up at the announcement of her name and timidly walked up the stairs. She saw the faces of the teachers: several were sleeping, some were giving her encouraging smiles, and others simply looked bored.

She sat on the stool and Professor McGonagall placed the leathery hat on her. Immediately, she heard a voice in her head and slightly jumped at the noise.

 _Don't be afraid I'm just a hat,_ it chuckled. _I see you're from the Dare family… I remember sorting your father and mother. Fine people they were and became very successful too. I wonder if you'll take after them._

"Oh just go on with it already!" Rachel angrily whispered. It earned her a few glances and she felt blood rise to her cheeks. Why was the damned hat taking so long? This has got to be the longest sorting in Hogwarts history!

 _Contrary to your belief, you are not the longest I have ever taken to sort,_ the hat noted, seemingly abused by her frustration. _You're a bright girl Miss Dare and a rather brave one too… I see that you love to paint and draw all sorts of things. A creative mind and a kind heart – well I think I decided where you're going to go._

"Ravenclaw!" the hat shouted.

The table to the immediate right of hers erupted into cheers. Rachel hopped off the stool walked to the Ravenclaw table, relieved that her sorting ceremony was over. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Octavian look at her with an unintelligible expression.

"Hey, you can sit over here," a girl said, patting the seat next to her. She had long blonde hair and grey eyes. Rachel recognized her as one of the people who got sorted. "My name's Annabeth Chase. Yours is Rachel Dare, right?"

Rachel nodded and sat next down to her. "That's my name. It's nice meeting you." She paused for a bit. "You know, it's nice to talk to a person. And since we're in the same house, we share similar interests. I don't why I was put into Ravenclaw; I'm not all that intelligent you know. I can barely solve math problems, but I consider myself a great artist."

Annabeth shrugged. "The hat is never wrong and even so, there much more to Ravenclaw than just book smarts. The house also represents creativity and imagination. You're an artist, so you embody those two characteristics. I envy you for that, I can barely draw a stick figure!" She laughed.

"Drawing is not that hard," said Rachel. Her anxiety was already fading away. "You just have to practice, that's the key word. If I have time, maybe I can teach you the basics: shading, perspective, color, and the works."

"And I'll help you with anything you need, be it school or social problems."

"Does this mean that we're friends?" Rachel asked.

Annabeth smiled. "Yes, yes it does."

"Perhaps this school year won't be so bad after all," thought Rachel. "I made a friend within a few minutes." She glanced at the Slytherin table. Octavian was welcoming a pretty Asian girl who seemed that she was annoyed by Octavain's presence. "And an enemy too, it seems."

In the meanwhile, the sorting moved into the G's. The grand hall erupted into applause with the sorting of another student, Jason Grace, who got into Gryffindor. One particularly loud student shouted "Yeah, Jason! Way to be like your big sis!" and he blushed furiously.

Another boy with raven black hair got sorted into Hufflepuff. He winked flirtatiously at Annabeth and waved at her, only to end up tripping on his too-big robes and falling face first to the ground.

Annabeth rolled her eyes as the students in the Great Hall laughed tremendously. "What an idiot. He should've been focusing on getting to his table than on me."

"Doesn't that mean he thinks that you're pretty," asked Rachel. He recognized the boy's face. They met briefly when they bumped into each other on the train. She thought he was kind of handsome.

Annabeth snorted, but there was a faint blush to her cheeks. "I don't have any time for love. I'm determined to not be sidetracked by romance. I want to be the best of the best, and I'm going to devote all of my time to studying."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Really now? You're not going to go out for a cup of tea or some sweets during the holidays? I'm surprised that you weren't placed in Slytherin."

"Perhaps my intelligence outweighs my ambition," said Annabeth. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that I wouldn't really mind being in Slytherin though. My dad was in Slytherin when he went here and he said that the people there were perfectly fine. Some of them are not at all like Death Eaters. But he did say that they were a bit 'off putting.'"

"That's interesting. All I read in the newspaper are Death Eaters blowing stuff up and killing people, and most of them are from Slytherin. It's nice to hear that some of them aren't monsters and have a heart."

* * *

From the Slytherin table, Octavian was watching Rachel talk with a blonde girl. The other girl that he was talking too, was much too conceited in his opinion and she put on way too much perfume.

He recognized Rachel's last name "Dare" from somewhere, perhaps in a newspaper or from his parents? He took a look at her clothes. They had holes in them, so she probably wasn't rich.

Octavian shrugged. He'll find out sooner or later. Right now, she was nobody and that was all that Octavian knew and cared about her.

* * *

The school year seemed to quickly pass by. September moved into June and the next thing that Rachel knew, she was boarding the Hogwarts Express back to home. Nothing exciting happened. She crammed for her tests and laughed with her friends. She enjoyed all of her classes, except for Potions with Professor Snape.

Annabeth was thankfully, in some of her classes so she didn't feel so alone. She made new friends too; a girl named Piper McLean from Gryffindor was famous among the muggleborn community since her father was an actor. Despite her looks, Rachel was surprised at her down-to-earth attitude and quickly became friends with her.

Octavian was a bigger pain than she thought he would be. Turns out, he was the son of Apollo Andersen, a coworker of her dad. Thankfully, he shared only one class with her but that didn't stop him from inducing headaches.

The boy who tripped and fell during the sorting ceremony? Percy Jackson? He was head over heels in love with Annabeth. It was too bad that Annabeth wasn't interested in him and that her goal for all seven years is to "study, study, and study." Rachel figured that she could have him, but she realized that she could when her flirtations never got through his dense head.

Well, besides her romantic mishaps, Rachel felt right at home in Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the home that she never had, the place where she can feel accepted for who she is. She would gladly take Hogwarts over any place that her parents owned.

The Hogwarts Express wasn't so lonely now that she had several people sitting with her. Annabeth sat across from her and Piper sat to Rachel's left. They were happily talking about the end of the year and recapping the year's events.

"I'm going to miss you guys over the summer," said Piper, eyes shining. Her brown hair was blowing from the wind of the open window. "It was quite nice not getting treated like a superstar and where no one knows who you are, well, almost everybody."

Rachel shrugged. "Hey, I'm just glad that no one knows who's in the ministry besides the important people and I'm not dragged into banquet after banquet shaking hands with my dad's colleagues."

"Isn't that the truth," snorted Piper. "Don't forget the press breathing down your backs like vultures, waiting for the next screw up."

"Compared to your lives, mines seem pretty normal," laughed Annabeth. "Wait, let me rephrase that. I go to a magical school filled with dangerous creatures and talking paintings that most people don't even know about. I fly on broomsticks, take screaming mandrakes out of pots, and learn to fight against Death Eaters. My life isn't anything but normal."

"So to sum it up, we all have pretty wild lives," said Piper.

"Basically," agreed Annabeth. "But we live great lives, interesting lives."

"And then we'll go back to living normal lives once we get off the train," sighed Rachel. Although she missed her muggle friends, she wanted to stay at Hogwarts, forever. She didn't want to go back to her normal, muggle life.

The train halted to a stop and the doors opened. Outside of their compartment, students excitedly ran off the train and embraced their parents. She could hear the laughter and the cheers from the glass walls. Piper and Annabeth got up, holding their bags.

"I guess this is goodbye," said Piper. "I'll see you guys in September. Goodbye!"

"I got to go too. I'm going to miss you guys," smiled Annabeth. She hugged Piper and then Rachel. With that she left and Piper went along with her.

Piper glanced out the window. Her parents didn't even bother showing up to greet her at the platform. Instead, her dad's secretary was there, Thomas, looking annoyed at all the "peasants" (as she liked to put it) around her.

Rachel sighed and walked out of the train. Typical. She saw Octavian walking in front of her, looking just as annoyed as she. Maybe he experienced the same thing as she, getting showed up by their own parents. He saw him meet a tall woman (mom? aunt? employee?) and together they walked away.

"Hello, Miss Dare," said Thomas in a brisk voice. His walk was stilted, as if he wasn't happy to be here. Dark glasses covered his eyes. "Your parents send their love to you. How was school?"

Rachel didn't look at him. "Just take me home, Thomas. Just take me home."

* * *

 **Not much Octavian and Rachel action here, I know. But there will be next chapter, whenever that's coming out. Hoped you guys enjoyed it and I'll be releasing one last story for Independence Day and then I'll disappear again.**


End file.
